BUSINESS BENCHMARK UNIT 5 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

COMPANY OR CUSTOMER PRIORITY? After sales services Loyalty Information about future needs Information about product updates Cost savings Personalised treatment

LIST What can a company do to build customer relationships?

LIST What are possible limitations in company and customer relationships?

DISCUSS The truth is that not all customers are equally valuable to your company. The well-known rule of business says that 20% of your customers will account for 80% of your sales- or even more in some industries.

DISCUSS One study indicates that it’s five to ten times more expensive to gain a new customer than it is to retain an existing one. Other studies show that increasing customer retention by just 1% can produce an 8% increase in profitability.

DISCUSS It is often said: “the customer is always right” How true is this? Give reasons

DISCUSS When do you think computer databases are better at predicting customers’ comments and needs, and when is this better done by sales staff on the ground?

DISCUSS What information do you think it is acceptable for companies to keep on their databases and what information is not acceptable?

Board of Directors Meeting How can Customer Relationship Management make the company more competitive? Decide upon a strategy Present your plan

Customer service Think of a time when you were treated badly as a customer. Think of a time you received excellent customer care. Exchange your experiences and discuss the consequences

“In fact, according to Yahoo! News, an angry customer is likely to tell anywhere from 11 to 20 other people about the experience. Compare this to the one other person a happy customer is likely to tell, and you can see why customer service is so critical to the success of an enterprise.”

“For example, if a company decides against investing money in employee training, how might that affect customer satisfaction at the point of sale?”

Discuss the ethical aspects of a company’s responsibility to provide its customers with quality products and services.

How a company handles the “little” things is just as important as how it handles the “big” things. What are the little things? What are the big things?

WRITING Choose a talking point from p30/31 from today’s lesson and write a composition words